Cracking Codes with Python
Al Sweigart is a professional software developer who teaches both children and adults how to code. He is the No Starch Press author of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, and Scratch Programming Playground.
Learn Python programming while creating and breaking ciphers—algorithms used to create and send encrypted messages!
Following a short course in Python programming fundamentals, you'll learn to create, test, and hack programs that encrypt text using classical ciphers such as the transposition cipher and Vigenère cipher. You'll start with simple programs for the reverse and Caesar ciphers and progress to public key cryptography, which is used to secure today's online transactions such as digital signatures, email, and Bitcoin.
Each program provides the complete source code as well as a line-by-line description of how things function. You'll have learned how to code in Python by the conclusion of the book, and you'll have the creative programs to prove it!
In Cracking Codes with Python, you'll also discover how to:
- Construct real-world programs by combining loops, variables, and flow control instructions.
- Use dictionary files to determine if decrypted messages are valid English or nonsense in real time.
- Create test programs to ensure that your code correctly encrypts and decrypts.
- Code (and hack!) a functioning example of the affine cipher, which encrypts a message using modular arithmetic - Break ciphers using brute-force and frequency analysis techniques.
Playing with real programs is the best method to learn to code. Cracking Codes with Python makes learning enjoyable!
Author: Al Sweigart
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Codes-Python-Introduction-Building/dp/1593278225/
Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 340 reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #113,348 in Books
#44 in Web Encryption
#47 in Computer Cryptography
#62 in Software Testing
